CSR around the world
<Japan>
– 2009

Ricoh/Japan

Creating a Work Environment Where All Employees Can Show Their AbilitiesMid

Ricoh is making efforts to establish diversity-focused human resources management in a bid to further globalize the brand. Especially in Japan, where the graying society and a decline in births have become serious issues, it is becoming even more important for women to exert their skills and contribute to the workforce. This is why one of Ricoh's priorities is to promote the active engagement of women.Ricoh has always made a comfortable working environment for employees based on one of its four management philosophies, "Respect for People." Since around 1990.prior to any legal requirement in Japan.Ricoh began a childcare support system that offers female employees the option of working shorter hours, among other features. Ricoh also began a new system for flexible working hours and a review of existing personnel systems. In 1999, we conducted a survey of female employees' contributions at work and began a new employee awareness survey in 2001. As a result, we learned that (for example) "Male employees are not aware that female employees' retirement rate is dropping significantly" or that "Female employees have little awareness on how to build their careers," which revealed a need for change in the way both men and women feel about work.In 2002, we coordinated efforts consisting of three pillars."changing awareness," "establishing a structure for balancing work and family life and flexible working conditions" and "supporting career development".in an effort to create a corporate culture where each individual, regardless of their gender, can maximize their contribution based on their skills and achievements. One example of these efforts is a series of interviews Ricoh conducted with the heads of each division based on the awareness survey results. We learned that female employees' career-building efforts were hampered by the personnel evaluation system conducted while women were on childcare leave, and that many employees were seeking a revision of this system. Therefore, we introduced a "career recovery measure" in 2003, which based evaluations on the pre- and post-childcare leave work performance and set promotion standards based on the post-childcare leave performance and future expectations. The new system ultimately increased the promotion rate for female employees. These ongoing efforts also increased the number of female managers, introduced new and increased management styles differing from conventional management styles, and are expected to help create a diversity-focused management.After reviewing the results of employee awareness surveys between 2003 and 2008 from the perspective of changes throughout the years, we discovered that female employees were making insufficient efforts in the category of "activities with consideration for one's career direction." Therefore, we introduced a "career support program" in fiscal 2008 and have been further strengthening the company's efforts to support ambitious female employees who wished to find self-fulfillment at Ricoh and build a career here. Ricoh plans to conduct the PDCA cycle in these measures, and progress with the goal of creating a diversity-conscious workplace and instilling diversity-consciousness in our employees.